Getting a green card on a working holiday visa

[bawaugh]

I am on a working hoilday visa and my boss is wanting to keep employing me. My visa requires me to leave Ireland in a few months.

I belive I am eligible for a green card, is it possible for me to apply for this while in the state or do I have to apply for this after leaving the country? (I belive I would have to do this).

Secondly does Ireland care where I am while I am out of the country applying for a green card? It would make things a lot easier to trip around europe for a month or and then reenter the country to collect the permit from my employer (I do not need a visa to get into Ireland).

Finally could a green card applicaiton be completed before I left and then posted out after I leave, or would they require me to have it all done after I left.

Thanks

[esharknz]

The best and easiest thing for you to do is just to leave the country on expiry of your working holiday visa and make sure your application is submitted after the date of expiry.

I got a big run around as to what I had to do (two departments suggested it was fine to stay and apply, but the GNIB insisted I had to leave), and eventually ended up leaving and applying from another country within the EU. I had my green card application completed before I left, but everything was post dated. There was a slight delay in submission as DETE insisted that I provide any evidence I could (in the form of a boarding pass and immigration stamps on arrival in Denmark) that I had left the country. They have no exit controls, as you know, so they are aware of people pretending to be outside of the country when they are not. Although, in saying this, I was told twice that the only proof they needed was a foreign address, but you just never know what they will ask you for.

Ireland does care if you are in the country when applying for a green card. There are only a couple of circumstances where they will actually grant a person a green card while in the country (i.e. existing employment permit holder, or on the graduate scheme). If they know you are in the country as a tourist, they will now decline you (never used to be the case, and the working holiday visa never used to be such a problem).

I'm not sure what you'd do about reenterng to get the permit. I know now they are posting them, by default, to the employer (I got the permit direct from DETE but the rules changed soon after this), so I wonder if they expect the employer to pass the permit on to you and then you would have to use this to enter the country in order to take up employment.

All the best with this. I cannot believe the hassle I got, and even going into the GNIB with my green card permit, I was ripped into again by someone who didn't look at my permit expiry date OR any foreign stamps I had. Had to spell this out clearly to them.

[ferrellk]

The best and easiest thing for you to do is just to leave the country on expiry of your working holiday visa and make sure your application is submitted after the date of expiry.

I got a big run around as to what I had to do (two departments suggested it was fine to stay and apply, but the GNIB insisted I had to leave), and eventually ended up leaving and applying from another country within the EU. I had my green card application completed before I left, but everything was post dated. There was a slight delay in submission as DETE insisted that I provide any evidence I could (in the form of a boarding pass and immigration stamps on arrival in Denmark) that I had left the country. They have no exit controls, as you know, so they are aware of people pretending to be outside of the country when they are not. Although, in saying this, I was told twice that the only proof they needed was a foreign address, but you just never know what they will ask you for.

Ireland does care if you are in the country when applying for a green card. There are only a couple of circumstances where they will actually grant a person a green card while in the country (i.e. existing employment permit holder, or on the graduate scheme). If they know you are in the country as a tourist, they will now decline you (never used to be the case, and the working holiday visa never used to be such a problem).

I'm not sure what you'd do about reenterng to get the permit. I know now they are posting them, by default, to the employer (I got the permit direct from DETE but the rules changed soon after this), so I wonder if they expect the employer to pass the permit on to you and then you would have to use this to enter the country in order to take up employment.

All the best with this. I cannot believe the hassle I got, and even going into the GNIB with my green card permit, I was ripped into again by someone who didn't look at my permit expiry date OR any foreign stamps I had. Had to spell this out clearly to them.

I think the application has a check box if you wish the permit to be sent to an address other than the employer.

[bawaugh]

So I would need to also attach some form of evidence that I had left the country to avoid delays?

How long in general does it take and do they do all their communicaiton by mail or email?

Also in relation to post dating would they care about the cheque?

thanks

[esharknz]

You might want to attach evidence you've left just in case you happen to be asked for it in order to save time. I honestly cannot say whether you will be asked as I got two different stories out of them, so I decided to take the safer route and just give them this proof.

I had my application completed, and the dates where given as a date in the future, but before the form was to be received by DETE. The same goes with the cheque.

In terms of waiting times, I'd think you'd not have to wait longer than 3 weeks for a decision (my decision took 5 weeks as they wanted additional documentation due to the wording on my job offer, and this slows it down). It also took me another week to get the green card in my hand. The mail seemingly takes around 2-3 days to filter out of the department. If they need anything from you, it will all be done by post.

They publish the current processing dates online (although these have been incorrect in the past), so the best thing would be for either yourself or your employer (I think the later is probably better) to find out about the status of your application.

[bawaugh]

Thanks for the previous information, how did you get an address outside Ireland for them to post the application to? My emails to the employment permit people say that they they want an address to post the permit to me.

Thanks

[esharknz]

I was fortunate enough to have family in both London and Denmark, so I ended up using the Danish address there. I'm not sure what you should do if this isn't feasible. My other option was to return to New Zealand and wait it out there, adding significantly to the waiting time, not to mention being expensive!